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OHN fLYNN, 



(J JMarratiw of Cruelty, Suffering 
and Ifi)rong Karel^ Paralleled. 

Hs IRelateb b£ Ibtmselt 



PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR : 
1803. 



I 



4** 



SOLD ONLY BY THE AUTHOR. 

COPIES MAILED TO ANY ADDRESS UPON RECEIPT OF THE PRICE. 
ADDRESS JOHN FLYNN, ENGLISHTOWN, N. J. 



ENTERED ACCORDING TO THE ACT OF CONGRESS, 

IN THE YEAR 1893, BY JOHN FLYNN, IN THE 

OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OFCONGRESS, 

AT WASHINGTON. 



PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF 

THE MONMOUTH DEMOCRAT, 
FREEHOLD, N. J. 






PREFACE. 



The following is the pitiful and entirely true story, simply told, 
of one who from neglect that was little if anything short of crim- 
inal in those to whose care he was confided in his early youth, 
was doomed to a life of affliction seldom paralleled in the history 
of human suffering. When but a little boy death and poverty 
deprived him of the loving care of his parents, and falling into 
the hands of an employer who appears to have been destitute of 
the ordinary feelings of humanity, cruel punishment and exposure 
at a period of his life when he was least able to bear it, threw him 
upon a bed of sickness from which he recovered only to find him- 
, self an incurable cripple. With an active mind and with the 
knowledge that came to him as his mind matured that he inherit- 
ed a strong and healthy body, he has been confined to his bed and 
compelled to lie in one position for over thirty-four 3-ears. 

Good people who may read this sad history — you who cannot 
endure for long any one position without fatigue, or even for a few 
minutes without remonstrance — imagine, if you can, the sufferings, 
mental as well as physical, of one who has been compelled to lie 
without change of position for half of an ordinary lifetime, and 
whose vigorous constitution gives indication that he may survive 
for another period as long. Think of the tiresome monotony of 
such a life, even when surrounded by kind relatives and friends, 
cheered by their presence and sustained by their cheerful conver- 
sation and hopeful encouragement, supplied with entertaining 
books and periodicals, and enjoying all the comforts that can be 
furnished by a christian home and the attentions of christian 
friends, and then think what this man has suffered, not as the re- 
sult of any imprudent or criminal act of his own, but because of 
the cruel neglect of those who were by all the laws of humanit}^ as 
well as by the laws of God and of the State bound to protect and 
defend him in his helpless infancy. 

The history was written at the request of a friend who desired 
to secure the facts during the lifetime of the subject from the one 



4 PREFACE. 

most competent to give them, and not with any idea of publishing 
them in the present form. Subsequently it was suggested that as 
the story was an interesting one, and as the subject of it had been 
prevented, recently, from earning money, which at one time he 
was enabled to do, for the purpose of providing himself with little 
comforts and necessaries, the sale of this sad history might 
supply the loss occasioned thereby. For this purpose it is offered 
to the kind consideration of a christian and charitable public, who 
will in the purchase of the work contribute to the comfort and hap- 
piness of an unfortunate and helpless fellow creature, and at the 
same time win the plaudit that " inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

The writer hereof, to whom was assigned the task of editing the 
manuscript, desires to say that he has aimed to preserve the orig- 
inal language of the author, and indeed found little in it to change. 
The task, which has been one of love, has been mainly that of 
arranging in regular sequence or order the several points of the 
narrative. 

March 4, 1893. 



THE STORY OF 

JOHN FLYNN. 



I was born in the city of New York about the middle 
of August, 1848, as I reckon from the record which will 
appear hereafter in these pages. This record was made, 
as I suppose, from statements by my dear mother at the 
time. My parents came from Ireland to this country. My 
father was a cooper by trade and resided in the city of New 
York. He was very poor. He died in 1854, leaving my 
mother with three small children — myself, and my brother 
and sister — to look after and care for. My mother was 
so poor that she could not support or take care of us, so 
she was obliged to put me and my brother in the institu- 
tion for poor children on Randall's Island. This was on 
the 17th of April, 1855. She kept my sister with her at 
her home in New York. 

I had a good home at the institution on Randall's Is- 
land, and had the best of care while I was there, but I had 
not been there but a little while when word was brought 
to me that my poor dear mother was very sick and could; 
not live a day longer. Oh, this was sad, very sad news 
for me to hear, but it was still harder for me to know 
that neither my brother nor myself could go to see my 
dear mother before she died, or even go to her funeral. 

I w T as now left an orphan to the cold charities of the 
world, with neither relatives or friends to look after me. 

I had been on Randall's Island nearly two years when 
a farmer living near Hightstown, New Jersey, came to the 



6 THE STORY OF 

institution to get a boy to work for him. He picked me 
out from among the other poor boys there and I was 
bound as an apprentice ' to him, in the usual form, he 
promising to provide for me, treat me kindly and teach 
me the farming business, and the officers of the Institu- 
tion promising for me that I would be diligent and obe- 
dient. This was one of the saddest days of my life, for I 
was taken away from my dear brother, who was the only 
relative then that I had any knowledge of. When the 
farmer was about to take me away my brother put his 
arms around my neck and would not let him part us, but 
we had to be separated and the farmer took me away with 
him. 

This man lived on a large farm, but I soon learned that 
he had no feelings 01 sympathy in his heart for a poor or- 
phan child. He was not good to me. He used me like 
he did his dumb beasts, if not worse. All the time I lived 
with him I never knew what it was to lie in a warm bed 
or to have warm clothes on my poor body. My bed, win- 
ter and summer, was a sheep-skin upon the bare floor and 
a horse blanket was my only covering. I had no change 
of clothing, either, and in rainy or stormy weather I would 
get my clothes wet, and would have to lie down on the 
cold floor with my wet clothes on. Many and many were 
the nights that I cried myself to sleep with the cold. They 
never gave me half enough to eat, either, and often I was 
so hungry that I took crusts from the swill-pail and ate 
them to stop the hunger-pain in my stomach. 

I have to stop here and wipe the tears out of my eyes 
before I can write any more. It makes me feel sad when- 
ever I think of the miserable life that I led at this time. 
As Grod will judge me, I write nothing here but the truth. 
On one occasion my employer nearly whipped rn3 to 
death for no fault of my own. What he punished me for 
was this : His cows got out of the pasture-field one day, 
and just at night-fall he sent me to look for them and bring 
them home. I went and after looking for them came 



JOHN FLYNN. 7 

back and told him I could not find them. This made 
him angry, and he told me to go and look for them again, 
and that I should not come into the house that night if I 
did not find them. By this time it was quite dark, and I 
was afraid in the woods after dark ; so I wandered about 
from place to place, but I could not find the cows. When 
at last I went back I was afraid to go into the house and 
tell him that I could not find the cows, so I went to the 
barn and got up into the mow of the cow house and laid 
there until morning. 

It was on a Saturday night when the cows strayed away. 
The next morning my employer came up into the mow to 
get some hay for the horses. I was still asleep and did 
not hear him until he was standing right by me. When 
he saw me he picked me up and threw me out of the cow- 
house window. The fall hurt me so badly that I could 
hardly get up. Then he took me into the barn, tied me 
with a rope and whipped me so hard that my poor body 
was sore from the effects of it for weeks afterwards. 

I was almost in despair before he got done whipping 
me. I think when he threw me out of the cow-house that 
he hurt my spine, for every little while, for more than a 
year afterwards, I would have a sharp pain in my back. 

I often think of my sufferings and griefs at this time, 
and pray that God will have mercy upon poor orphan 
children who are left to the mercy of the world, and to 
soften the hearts of cruel or unthinking masters and mis- 
tresses. Many times I went away from my cruel master 
and tried to get away on the cars at Hightstown to get 
back to Randall's Island, where at least I had kind treat- 
ment, and enough to eat, and a comfortable place to sleep 
at night ; but every time that I got on the cars the con- 
ductor would put me off" because I had no money to pay 
my fare to New York, and then I would have to go back 
to my employer and he would whip me cruelly for going 
away. 

So I lived with this man until he gave up farming and 



8 THE STORY OF 

moved away. As he did not want to take me with him 
his wife told me, one day, that if I wanted to go away I 
could go whenever I pleased and where I pleased. I 
thought if I could only get back to the institution at Ran- 
dall's Island I would be happy ; and happy would it have 
been for me if I could have done so, for then I would not 
have been thrown upon this bed of affliction, where I have 
been laid helpless for so many long and tedious years. 
But I was glad to get away from the place where I had 
been treated so badly and suffered so much. I was afraid 
of my employer, and in dread always, after he threw me 
out of the cow-house window. 

I did not know where to go, but I gladly left my heart- 
less master. I wandered about through the country from 
place to place trying to find some one who would take 
pity on me and let me live with them. I was little boy, 
did not know anybody, and did not know the country. I 
did not know one road from another after I got away from 
my master's place. It was in the winter time when I 
went away. There was snow on the ground a foot deep. 
My shoes were nearly worn out, and I had no stockings. 
As I wandered from place to place I asked at every farm- 
house I came to if they wanted a boy, but they all said no. 

"When it came night, the first day I was out on the road, 
I went into a small house along the roadside and asked 
the people there if they would let me stay all night. The 
woman of the house took pity on me and let me stay. 
The next morning a man came along the road and the 
woman went out and asked him if he did not want a boy 
to work for him. So the man when he saw me took pity 
on me too, and took me home with him. 

When I got to his house it was found that in my wan- 
derings through the snow the day before I had frozen 
every toe on my feet, and for a long time after that I 
could hardly walk. I lived with this man six months. 
He did not want me any longer, but he told me where I 



JOHN FLYNN. V 

could get another place. So I went to this new place and 
lived there four years. 

At this new place the people at first treated me kindly, 
but the last two years of my stay they were not good to 
me. After I had lived with them a year I was taken with 
rheumatism in my legs so that I could hardly walk about. 
Every time that there was a storm I would have great 
pains in my legs, and the joints would be stiff so that I 
could not move them. If I was sitting in a chair I could 
not get up without great difficulty. When the storm 
would be over I would feel better and the stiffness would 
go out of my joints. But the rheumatism kept getting 
worse, until at last I could not walk at all without a 
crutch to hold me up. This went on so for nearly a year, 
and then I had to use two crutches. 

Oh, what great sufferings I had during these times. I 
was sick nearly all the time. I suffered for the want of 
care and suffered for want of medical aid. I had no doc- 
tor, and had nothing done for me all the time I was in 
this condition. I could hardly get about on my two 
crutches, and yet I was expected to work and do things 
that it was hardly possible in my condition for me to do. 
Sometimes I was so weak and sick that I could hardly 
walk at all, and at last got so bad that when I was down 
I could hardly get up, and then my employer took me to 
Clarksburg and gave me up to the overseer of the poor. 

It was in the Fall when I was put under the charge of 
the overseer. The next Spring the township committee 
met. They did not want the burden of my care, and after 
finding out that I was born in New York they concluded 
that my legal residence was in that city and that they 
would send me back there. So they employed a man to 
take me to New York and leave me at the Alms House. 

When the man took me to New York I was so ill that 
I could hardly walk. He took me over on the Matawan 
steamboat. This was on a Friday night. The next morn- 
ing he told me to stay on the boat until noon while he 



10 THE STORY OF 

went up into the city to transact some business, and then 
he would come back and get me. So at noon he came 
back and took me up into the city. It was a very cold 
day. There was snow on the ground. I felt so sick and 
weak that I could hardly walk on my crutches. When 
we got up into the heart of the city he said to me : " We 
will now go into this store and get warm." So I went 
into the store with him, and after we had sat there for 
awhile by the stove he said to me : " You sit here until I 
come back. I am going out on the street a little while, 
and I will be back and get you, and take you then to the 
Aims House." Sol sat there by the stove waiting for 
him to come back. I sat there until nearly night, but he 
did not come. Then the storekeeper came to me, put 
his hand on my shoulder and said to me : " Little boy, 
you must go home. You have been here nearly all the 
afternoon." So I told him how I came to be there, and 
my circumstances and condition. Then he went across 
the street and came back with a policeman. The police- 
man asked me where the man was going to take me, and 
I told him the story. This was on Saturday night. The 
policeman then took me to " The Tombs," as the city pris- 
on of New York is called. 

I did not see the man who brought me to the city any 
more. When the policeman left me at the Tombs I was 
put into a cell and the cell-door was locked on me. There 
was nothing in the cell but a wooden bench. The door 
was iron and the walls were stone. There was nothing 
for me to lie clown upon or to sit on but the wooden 
bench. While I was there I had to lie upon this bench 
at night with no bed-clothing to cover me. It was very 
cold and I suffered a great deal with the cold and with 
the pain in my limbs, so that I could not sleep. I suffered 
so much that I could not eat anything while I was there, 
except two little crackers that I sent out and had bought 
for me. 

I was kept in the Tombs until Monday morning. When 



JOHN FLYNN. 11 

they came for me at 10 o'clock, that morning, I could not 
move my legs, nor stand up nor walk one step. My legs 
were stiff and pained me very much, from lying in the 
cold cell with no bed but a bare wooden bench and no 
bed-clothing to cover me at night. In consequence I took 
a very heavy cold and it made my rheumatism worse. So 
they had to carry me in their arms to the wagon that was 
to take me to the Alms House. 

When we arrived at the Alms House the head man of 
the place questioned me as to where I came from and how 
I came to get there, and I told him the story of my adven- 
tures. After hearing it he decided that my legal resi- 
dence was in the township in New Jersey from whence I 
had just been taken. That I had been away from the 
Institution at Randall's Island long enough to acquire a 
residence elsewhere, and that my legal residence was 
where I had served as an apprentice. He decided to send 
me back to New Jersey. He also said it was a very wrong 
thing for the policeman to put one in my condition in the 
Tombs, but he said it was the custom when any one was 
found on the streets at night with no home to go to, to 
put them in the Tombs until morning. So he wrote some- 
thing on a piece of paper and gave it to a man in attend- 
ance and told him to take me and put me on the Amboy 
boat and give the piece of paper to the Captain of the 
boat. I did not know what was written on the paper. 
They were sending me back to Millstone township. 

I could not walk one step, so that wherever they took 
me they had to carry me in their arms. When we got to 
Amboy the Captain of the boat took me in his arms and 
put me in the cars for Hightstown. 

It had been a very sorrowful cla}^ for me. I was very 
ill all the way from New York. The cars reached Hights- 
town just at nightfall. I was carried from the cars into a 
hotel. I asked the landlord of the hotel to take me down 
to Clarksburg that night. He asked me if I would not 
stay until morning and said he would take me then. I 



12 THE STORY OF 

told him that I felt so badly that I did uot think I would 
live till morning. So he sent me down that night, and I 
was left with the overseer of the poor of the township. 

But this was not the whole of my adventures that night. 
The man who brought me from Hightstown had a sore on 
his right hand and so had to guide the horse with his left 
hand. The day before there had been a very heavy rain, 
and a bridge across a ditch about a mile from Clarksburg 
had been washed away. When we arrived at the ditch it 
was so dark that the driver did not see that the bridge 
was gone. The horse jumped over the ditch but the wag- 
on fell into it. When the wagon went down the jolt hurt 
my back and I fainted. When I came to myself the driv- 
er had got the wagon on to the road again. I was suffer- 
ing great agony from the pain in my back. When the 
wagon jolted into the ditch it must have caused another 
injury to my spine or revived the old one, which I received 
when my employer threw me out of the window of the 
cow-house. 

When we reached Clarksburg I was lifted out of the 
wagon and carried into the hotel and seated in a chair. 
Here I must have fainted again, for I did not know any- 
thing more until the next day in the afternoon. When I 
came to myself I was up stairs and in bed. I was so ill 
that they did not think it was proper, for over a week, to 
move me. 

When at last I had recovered so that they thought they 
could safely move me, the overseer of the poor came and 
took me away about three miles from Clarksburg, and I 
was put to board with a familv with whom the overseer 
had bargained to keep me for a weekly allowance to be 
paid by the township, such being the custom in that part 
of the country of caring for the helpless poor. So this 
family took charge of me and nursed me, and after I had 
been there with them two months I could go around on 
my crutches. During that Summer I got quite smart, 
but as soon as Fall came and cold weather set in again 



JOHN FLYNN. 13 

my joints became stiff, the pains came back in my legs, 
and I got so that I could hardly get up when I was down. 

So the illness continued for a while until one day when 
I was trying to exercise myself by walking with my 
crutches outside of the house, one of my crutches slipped 
and I fell. I could not get up and the man I lived with 
came out, picked me up, carried me into the house and 
laid me on my bed. 

That was the last time that ever I was on my feet to 
attempt to walk. 

For more than thirty years I have been lying upon the 
bed of affliction. 

From the clay on which I fell and was carried in and 
laid upon my bed my rheumatism got worse, cramps set 
in along with it and drew my poor legs almost double, 
and no pen can describe nor tongue tell the terrible pains 
that I suffered for years afterwards. How many times in 
my agony I begged and prayed for death to relieve me of 
my awful sufferings my Saviour only knows. At last the 
pains and cramps left me, but left me with my legs warped 
out of shape and useless, and my body in a condition of 
helplessness never to be cured while this life lasts. I 
was taken down upon my bed when I was only 
about thirteen years old, and since that time one-half 
of my body has rested upon my back and the other half 
upon my right side, my legs drawn almost double, and 
my feet and toes out of all natural shape. It would make 
almost any one's heart ache to see what a condition my 
poor body has been reduced to, and to reflect upon the 
position in which I am forced constantly and without 
change to lie. You that have kindly hearts and sympa- 
thies that are easily awakened by the tale of distress or at 
the sight of suffering, will feel sorry for me, but you can 
never know what it is to lie on a bed of affliction such as 
mine has been. Only those who have suffered in like 
manner can to any adequate degree realize the long drawn 
out suffering, the almost hourly agony of despair that 



14 THE STORY OF 

would welcome death as a happy release, only to sleep 
and wake again to the hourly despair and to hope daily 
for the death that never comes to heal the crippled, mis- 
erable body. 

But while it is true that I have not sat up in my bed, 
or changed the position of my body for over thirty-four 
years, and know that as long as I live I shall have to re- 
main in the same position and suffer as I have done, yet 
I can be thankful to my God that I have been spared the 
use of my arms and hands and of my eye-sight. It is 
hard to be deprived of most of the earthly comforts and 
enjoyments that are accorded to nearly all of God's crea- 
tures, yet I can praise him that he has given me a mind 
to appreciate and enjoy his wonderful works, and to read 
and understand his revealed Word. And so while my lot 
in this life is a very sad one and my sufferings have been 
great, yet I am enabled through His grace and mercy to 
be reconciled to my sad lot, if it is His will that I shall 
lie upon this bed of affliction for thirty years more. I 
have a Christian's hope for a future life of happiness, and 
I can well afford to suffer here if I may enjoy the glory 
of the hereafter. I know that for all my trials and suffer- 
ings here in this world the brighter will be my crown in 
heaven, and I am happy in Christ, for my peace is made 
with God. A mansion is prepared for me, and I am only 
waiting until my Saviour shall call me to meet him on the 
other side of the dark river. 

I read God's holy Word and it gives me great comfort. 
I find it a means of grace and strength to my heart and 
soul. Sometimes I think that He keeps me on this bed 
of affliction for an example of patience and faith to others 
as well as to try mine, and I try to be a hero and endure 
it with resignation. The story is often related, in order 
to encourage us, of the bravery of Christians in the hour 
of death. I once heard the story of a very distinguished 
man who was on his death-bed. He was a true Christian. 
Feeling that he had only a few moments more to live he 



JOHN FLYNN. 15 

sent for his family that he might give them his farewell 
words. His soul was filled with holy joy and his face 
lighted up with a smile as he told them to cease their 
weeping and see how a Christian could die. That was a 
brave thing to do, but sometimes it seems to me that it 
requires more courage to lie on the bed of affliction to 
which I have been confined and be able to keep a smile 
on my face and a cheerful heart in my bosom, as I en- 
deavor with God's help to do. I am waiting for the day 
when Christ, the Divine Surgeon, shall with his touch 
heal the sufferings of this poor body and make straight 
and whole these crooked and withered limbs. I never 
cease praying for fellow-sufferers who like myself, by the 
providence of God have been shut in. 

Since I have been afflicted I have taught myself to knit, 
to do crochet Avork and laces. Some of my work has been 
commended as very beautiful. Some years ago I took 
the first premium at the Monmouth County Fair for my 
knitting work. For several years I was able to earn some 
money by knitting and selling tidies and other things, 
with which I purchased medicines and little necessary 
things for my bodily comforts, but for the last six years I 
have not been able to knit much because my eyes became 
so weak that the physician said I must stop or I would 
become blind. I knit sometimes but I soon have to stop 
because it makes my eyes ache very much. 

I have also learned to read and write since I became 
afflicted, and about mj T only comfort and pleasure now is 
in reading. If I could not read I do not know what I 
should do, for it so helps to pass away the sad and lonely 
hours. Kind friends occasionally send me newspapers, 
which are a great comfort to me and for which I am very 
grateful. 

During all the years after I parted from my sister and 
brother, as related in the beginning of this story, I never 
heard, down to a recent time, a word from them or 
learned where they were, although I had frequently, dur- 



16 THE STORY OF 

ing that time, advertised for them in the newspapers. 
The last time that I put an advertisement in the newspa- 
pers, was about six years ago. The following is a copy 
of it : 

TO THE PUBLIC— The undersigned, a helpless invalid, having been confined to 
his bed for a number of years, living among entire strangers, wishes to learn 
the address of his brother and sister, residing at last accounts in the city of New 
York. Their names are Martin Flynn and Mary Flynn. Any one knowing any- 
thing of either of them will confer a great favor by sending such information to the 
subscriber. Address JOHN FLYNN, 

English town, Monmouth County, N. J. 
4®=- Other papers please copy. 

Then I thought I would write to the officers of the in- 
stitution at Randall's Island, and they sent me a copy of 
the records from which I learned that my father's name 
was Patrick Finn, born in county Wexford, Ireland, and 
my mother's name was Catharine Early, born in the 
same county. That their children, Martin, aged 9 years 
and 10 months, and John, aged 7 years and 9 months, 
were given in charge of the institution by their mother, 
who was unable to support them, on the 17th of April, 
1855. The records also show that John was apprenticed 
to a farmer in Monmouth county, IN". J., on January 12th, 
1857, and Martin to another farmer in Bergen county, 
on the 8th of September of the same year. This letter 
from the institution was dated on the 26th of June, 1884. 
Up to that time I had always thought that my name was 
Flynn, and I still think that a mistake was made in the 
record. However, it was the means of finding my broth- 
er about two years afterwards. I traced him to Bergen 
county. It was a happy meeting. He had been a soldier 
in the war with the South, had served his time in the 
army and had received an honorable discharge. After 
the war he had married and when we met he had a wife 
and eight children to support and was in very poor cir- 
cumstances ; but it was a comfort and joy to us both to 
meet again. It also gave us hopes that we will yet find 
our dear sister, of whom we have heard nothing since we 
were separated when my mother took us to the institution. 



JOHN FLYNN. 17 

I will now bring this sad history to a close. Those 
who have read it thus far will see that my afflictions were 
all brought on by the hand of man. If I had had proper 
care and medical attention when I was a boy and was 
first taken down to my bed I could have been easily cured. 
Or after that, when I became so ill, and was yet young, if 
I had been sent to some medical institution I might have 
been restored to health and outgrown all my injuries ; 
but now no power on earth can help me. Oh, it is hard 
to think that when there was hope for me in this world, 
and that my poor body might have been saved from this 
great affliction, that I could not have it ! 

But through all my life's suffering, sorrow and trial I 
see the loving, gentle, guiding hand of our Father above, 
and I am learning more and more how sweet it is to trust 
in Jesus. My soul is happy in a Saviour's love. I am 
cleansed and saved by His precious blood. I am filled 
with thanksgiving for His numberless mercies, and I am 
clinging to His blessed promises for all I need in the fu- 
ture. "What a mighty consolation to sad and sorrowing 
ones that we have a friend in Jesus. How sweet to look 
up and say : " Thy will be clone," and to feel and know 
that our steps are ordered of the Lord. That any and 
every little event of each day is planned for us by a loving 
Father. All this is cause for daily thanksgiving. But 
when we look beyond these fleeting years of pain and sor- 
row to the rest in those beautiful mansions above, our 
souls are lost in rapture ; when our last words of cheer 
have been all spoken — when our last line has been writ- 
ten, and we come to enter in at the pearly gates to the 
city of our King — then shall the everlasting thanksgiving 
be upon our lips, and songs of joy and praise in our hearts 
and voices. My prayer is that I may meet all my friends 
on earth there. Kind reader, meet me there. 

In conclusion I give some verses that I have written for 
the comfort of those who are afflicted like myself. I hope 
if any such may happen to read them, they may be the 



18 



THE STORY OF JOHN FLYNN. 



means of cheering their hearts. Dear fellow-sufferers, our 
Saviour feels "for us in our afflictions, and in his own good 
time and in his own good way will bring us relief. 



BE NOT AFRAID, FOR JESUS IS WITH THEE. 



Is this thy time of trouble, 

Look up, look up on high, 
To Him who now would succor thee, 

Who now would draw thee nigh. 

He sees thy soul is clinging 

To something here below, 
And wants to make thy roving heart 

His greater love to know. 

Look up, look up to Jesus, 

A present help is He, 
He has been such to others, 

He will be such to thee. 

Is this thy time of doubting? 

Do fearful thoughts arise? 
Lift up thy heart to Jesus, 

He will not thee despise. 

Think of His great, his wondrous love, 
Think of His glorious name, 

Think why He shed his precious blood 
And soon thy doubts must flee. 

List to the Saviour's gentle voice, 

" Fear not, for I am near, 
" And never will forsake my child 

" While he is lingering he're." 

Is this thy time of sickness? 

E'en now doubt not his love. 
Thy Father wants to make thee think 

More of thy home above. 

That home where no more sickness 
No doubts, no troubles, rise, 

But where thy Father, God, will wipe 
The tears from off thine eyes. 



Those whom He loves be Christians, 

Thou wilt not then repine, 
But let thine aching head and heart 

On Jesus's breast recline. 

In every time of trouble, 

Of doubting or of pain, 
Lift up thy heart to Jesus, 

Pray yet, and yet again. 

He shares in all thy sorrows, 

He feels for all thy grief, 
And though He sends affliction now, 

He soon will send relief. 

He watches o'er thee in thy bed, 
'Twas He who placed thee there, 

That He might purge away the sin, 
And thou His image bear. 

Canst thou not from these depths of woe 

Call out to Him for aid? 
To Him on whose dear heart we know 

Our cares and griefs are laid ? 

Oh. yes, he bore our sorrows here, 

He knoweth all our pain ; 
His voice can fill our hearts with cheer, 

And make them sing again. 

Then why, my soul, art thou cast down? 

Oh, why dost thou repine? 
An earthly cross, a heavenly crown, 

Shalt thou exchange in time. 

Rejoice, then, oh thou suffering one ; 

Rejoice ! Be not cast down. 
Those who for Christ here bear the Cross 

Above shall wear the Crown. 



THE END. 



®Bm$h 



